Kinross roads bosses have “insufficient funds” to deliver safety improvements agreed seven years ago, a former councillor has claimed.
Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) veteran Mike Barnacle said he had helped secured £600,000 in the council’s 2016 capital budget for projects to slow traffic along the A977.
Lorries and other HGVs use the road frequently, passing through Kinross-shire villages Crook of Devon, Drum, Powmill and Blairingone.
Many people in the villages believe the volume, speed and size of the traffic presents a serious danger.
Mr Barnacle said officials agreed on four projects to slow traffic in 2016 – but they have delivered only one.
That is putting in traffic lights at a junction west of Blairingone.
The former councillor is now chairman of the Fossoway Community Development Trust. Voters first elected in him in 1999 and he stepped down last year.
He said officials agreed funding in 2016 for signals at the crossroads in Drum and a further set of lights near Fossoway Primary school. The final project included “realigning” the B9097 junction leading into Crook of Devon.
He said: “I am now informed that there are insufficient funds to deliver the remaining projects. I would like to know what has happened to this capital allocation because the Blairingone signalisation should not have cost the provision secured?
“If my information is correct, it is incumbent on the council to make further capital provision for the projects agreed. This is on a road that carries the highest volume of traffic, particularly HGVs, of any road under PKC control.”
Former councillor demands A977 answers
Mr Barnacle had spells as a Liberal Democrat, Independent and most latterly a Conservative while representing his ward. He has written to senior PKC transport officials demanding answers.
A PKC spokesperson said the council still intended to build traffic lights at School Road and the Drum crossroads. The pandemic and increasing costs linked to inflation, however, had set back the timeline.
He said: “Any suggestion the budget allocated for these improvements has disappeared is incorrect.”
Safety improvements had been agreed in full consultation with local councillors and other community representatives, he added.
“It has been spent on a range of agreed priorities, including traffic signals in Blairingone at the Saline junction, vehicle activated signs in each of the villages along the routes, upgraded direction and warning signs and new gateway signs at the entrance to each village.”
It is understood that newly elected councillors have pushed for traffic lights at Drum crossroads to be finished before work begins on any realignment of the A977/B9097.
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